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Introduction to Python Programming Tutorial

In this introductory tutorial we learn what Python is, what it's used for, and why you should learn this simple and powerful programming language.

Lessons in this course

If you're new to Python, or programming in general, start from the beginning.

Beginner
Development Environment Setup Your first Python application
First Steps
Keywords, identifiers and operands Statements, Comments & Indentation Console input & output Variables & Constants Data Types Number data types String data type Operators
Control Flow
Conditional Control: if, elif, else, ternary Iteration Control: while, for, break, continue, pass
Collections
List Collection Tuple Collection Set Collection Dictionary Collection
Intermediate
Functions Lambda Expressions Modules Packages
Object-Oriented Programming
OOP: Classes & Objects OOP: Class Attributes & Methods OOP: Inheritance OOP: Polymorphism Iterators Generators
Errors & Exceptions
Errors & Exception Handling
Files
Basic File Operations

What is Python?

Python is a general purpose, easy to use programming language. It was created in 1991 by Guido van Rossum.

What is Python used for?

The better question to ask is what it’s not used for. Python is very ubiquitous due to its simplicity, versatility and enormous library collections.

It’s used everywhere from NASA to Netflix and is the third most used language in the world as per Github

  • Web applications
  • Desktop applications
  • Scientific and numeric applications
  • Network programming
  • Games and 3D graphics
  • Machine Learning
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Robotics
  • Data harvesting
  • Data analysis
  • Computer Vision etc.

Why learn Python?

There are many benefits to learning Python:

  • Python is compatible with major platforms and systems. Python works on platforms such as Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi etc.
  • Python is easy, simplifying complex software development.
  • Python supports object oriented and structured programming fully.
  • Python features a dynamic type system and automatic memory management.
  • Python has a large and robust standard library.

Below is a list of a few more features worth mentioning:

  • Expressive
  • High level
  • Portable
  • Interpreted
  • Extensible
  • Embeddable
  • Free and open source

Is Python hard to learn?

Because of its simple syntax, Python is one of the easiest languages to learn and is perfect for beginners.

Prerequisites

Before we proceed, please note that we make the following assumptions:

  • You know how to install software on whichever operating system you use.
  • You can create and navigate directories and files on your computer.

While this tutorial series is for beginners with no knowledge of Python or programming in general, programmers coming from other languages that want to learn Python 3 will also find it very helpful.

This tutorial series covers many topics of programming in Python, ranging from beginner concepts to advanced.

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Development Environment Setup